Web Design - part 1: Pin the tail on the donkey

[Garri]

I just got a link today of an amusing spoof video of what Microsoft would do if they were in charge of redesigning the packaging for the iPod. I would bet good money on the solution they would probably come up with but the odds wouldn't be favourable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAGr3mVV ... oft%20ipod

It's what I call the pin the tail on the donkey approach to design, all too common in most holiday rental listing websites and indeed owners' personal sites.

Before firing up your copy of Dreamweaver, or other WYSIWYG programs and jumping right in, work it all out on a sheet of paper first. Iterate. Reiterate. Divide the blank space up into a grid, apply the rule of thirds (remember your first serious art classes at school?). Think of it as grid. Bear in mind we scan web sites from left to right in a Z shape, we don't read them, unless we really have to in order to get more details.

One thing I've also noticed is SEO at the expense of design. I guess some people have different priorities but if I were to spend my time and resources on SEO I'd make sure I had a pretty decent website for the increase in traffic that SEO supposedly brings. And I'd make sure the call to action was clear. I wouldn't slap a blindfold on users and then shout: 'Right, last one to work out how to use this site is an idiot'. Which in effect, is what is happening most of the time.

Having visited hundreds of holiday websites: rental listing sites and owners' sites, I would say that the vast majority are very poor. I'm tempted to publish links to examples of badly put together websites of owners but instead it might be more productive to show examples of the best ones and talk about what makes them good.

Meanwhile, I'll just summarise some of the more common mistakes, in no particular order of annoyance:

* Photos with no captions nor context. (Is that beach photo on your site the view from the property, or is it a 1 hour drive away? Oh, it's a 1 hour drive away!)

* No call to action when I've reached the bottom of the page (Oh but look, I can buy some books from Amazon, neat! Do you really want me to leave your site and buy a book so you can get your 15%, or do you want me to book accommodation with you?)

* Today's weather in the Costa del Sol (Totally useless unless I'm viewing your site at 5am, buy my easyJet ticket for a flight at 8am and be in Malaga by lunchtime - assuming no delays!)

* A mish mash of affiliate links with poorly rendered logos slapped anywhere on a page (we're in real pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey territory with this one. Tacky, very very tacky) Note: if it's absolutely vital you plaster your site with these logos at least ask the companies for scaleable eps files so you can at least blend them in to your site, stylishly.

* Key information presented in a PDF file, or worse a Word file.

* Booking/Enquiry form as a PDF file, or worse a Word file (Um, what do you want me to do with this? Ah, I see, fill it in by hand and send it off in the post, or fax. I'll have to post it 'cos my fax isn't working. Hopefully the dates I want will still be available!)

* Navigational elements only appearing on homepage, and as if by magic, disappearing as you progress through the site (Help me, I'm lost! - goodbye!)

* Spelling/Grammar - It's your holiday, not you're holiday. It's of course, not of coarse (as for place names, I'll have to rely on you to get that right)

* Bad choice of typography, my pet hate. (I don't care how nice your villa is, I hate Comic Sans. So much so I'm leaving your site never to return. That's how much of a snob I can be )

There's tons more but the above list is enough for now.

Think about what you are trying to achieve with your website. In nutshell it is to present your content and take booking enquiries.

The trick of course is to help us achieve that goal and guide us through the maze. Do not blindfold us. Do not kick our walking sticks away. Help us. Sell us the dream. Help us to do what you want us to do, make a booking enquiry. You have our attention, we're in your sales funnel. We don't want to be helplessly trapped in your web.

Once the project I've been working on is launched I will put together a bunch of tutorials on how to use the Textpattern cms to create a holiday accommodation site (for owners) along with reasons why people should consider this approach, because as far as I see, the pros far outweigh the cons (there aren't any, cons that is).

There may even be some templates to download and customise. However, Textpattern is only of use to people running their websites off a server capable of running PHP, with mySQL.

Next in the series... Web Design - part 2: Now take the blindfold off.

[Highams Park Harry]

Yes

I'm thinking that a well laid out form then emailed to both parties is better than something printed out and posted

Almost legal these days, legal enough

[Chalky]

Garri,

That's how much of a snob I can be

How right you are! Who do you think you are to dictate to people what font they should use. For every Garri, who has, apparently, seen it all and is tired of Comic Sans, but probably isn't in the target market anyway, there are lots of people who think it is an attractive font. If an advertiser is targetting normal people, not families of Garris, Comic Sans might be as appropriate as any font.

*Today's weather in the Costa del Sol (Totally useless unless I'm viewing your site at 5am, buy my easyJet ticket for a flight at 8am and be in Malaga by lunchtime - assuming no delays!)

Ever heard of a guide, Garri? An indication that, in general, the weather in Spain is better than in the UK. Stop being so literal.

Photos with no captions nor context

What's wrong with general photographs to give a flavour of the area?

I will put together a bunch of tutorials

Please don't put yourself to any trouble; Paolo has already written some very good guides.

[Garri]

I will put together a bunch of tutorials

Please don't put yourself to any trouble; Paolo has already written some very good guides.

To my knowledge, he hasn't put together a guide on how to create a modern website using a cms.

[Garri]

On the subject of Comic Sans. It's not an appropriate choice of font for the majority of sites I see using it - it lacks any sophistication which is unsurprising I guess since it's based on a comic book style.

Chalky, you sound defensive. You're not a member of the following site are you?

littlewonder.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ourcause/index.htm

[Ju]

Garri

Thank you for your post. I think on most points you have got it absolutely right. I for one would be interested in your next installment.

I agree with you in particular about the weather forcast. If I am trying to book a week in the south of France, and I am looking at the wesite in January, seeing something telling me it is -1 outside does not go with the image of the swimming pool I am seeing.

As for Comic sans font, I do use it from time to time, but not on the website. I find it acceptable as a printed text, but Arial is much easier to read on the screen. You only have to look at proffesionally built websites, the BBC, microsoft, Google, to see that simpler fonts work.

Ju

[Chalky]

On the subject of Comic Sans. It's not an appropriate choice of font for the majority of sites I see using it - it lacks any sophistication which is unsurprising I guess since it's based on a comic book style.

How 'sophisticated' is the average customer for our properties, either in web terms or in the general sense?

Chalky, you sound defensive. You're not a member of the following site are you?

littlewonder.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ourcause/index.htm

No. I don't particularly like Comic Sans, but I don't see anything wrong in people using it if they think it appropriate to their site. And I don't think you are qualified to determine whether it is appropriate for them.

[Garri]

How 'sophisticated' is the average customer for our properties, either in web terms or in the general sense?

Chalks, a very revealing comment, thanks. Is that what's going on here? Underestimating your clientele?

I can see the thought bubble above your head (in Comic Sans, of course): "Don't worry, our customers are too stupid to appreciate anything vaguely sophisticated, and as for fonts, we'll just use any old tat and not give any thought as to whether it's readable on screen on not".

Please treat your customers with more respect, they're paying for your pension matey!

[la vache!]

I agree with Garri on the font, on one of the websites up for review recently someone had used comic sans serif throughout and I didn't like it. It just didn't give me an impression of quality and didn't reflect well on the property it was describing. It would have put me off as a potential customer immediately.
As someone who doesn't know a lot about websites, I find Garri's information very interesting and informative, so I'm looking forward to part 2.

[Normandy Cow]

Thanks Garri, I too am waiting for part two with bated (or should that be "baited"? ) breath...

As I was reading through your list I was mentally checking off and I think (hope!) that I am only guilty of one or at most two of your pet hates (the first two) - will rectify asap!

[ashtondav]

Hmmmm

That's got me thinking Garri.

Part 2 could focus on the "fab cushion" (?) part of your website where there is a photo with neither a caption or an 'alt', thereby breaking one of your rules and one of 'accessibility'.

Always good to have holiday rental website advice from someone who's not in the business. Good ideas can come from anywhere!

[Garri]

Ashtondav, I see you are now an expert on accessibility and optimisation. I seem to remember generously helping you out when you were in a pickle about being bumped by Google (you took the advice of an SEO expert who suggested you pepper your content with 'frigiliana apartment rental' every other word)

Edit: I see you've since improved on that somewhat and now it only appears every paragraph.

Perhaps this will jog your memory:

viewtopic.php?p=12961&highlight=#12961

Part 2 could focus on the "fab cushion" (?) part of your website where there is a photo with neither a caption or an 'alt', thereby breaking one of your rules and one of 'accessibility'.

You seem to have misunderstood the point I was making. The Fab Cushion photo is in context, as it's the only photo on the artist's page. I was talking about loads of photos on sites without any captions, and in some cases, no context.

Another usability & accessibility expert on this forum pointed out that the site has 16 validation errors. I was quite chuffed with that since the website was designed in 2001 when web standards and accessibility weren't in many web designers' vocabulary, hasn't been redesigned since. Having run some well known rental listings sites through the validator some of them have errors in the hundreds.

Always good to have holiday rental website advice from someone who's not in the business

I am in the business, as you may soon discover. I am also a punter who uses your websites

[Garri]

Thanks Garri, I too am waiting for part two with bated (or should that be "baited"? ) breath...

I do seem to have touched a raw nerve with the Costa del boys

As I was reading through your list I was mentally checking off and I think (hope!) that I am only guilty of one or at most two of your pet hates (the first two) - will rectify asap!

I like your site by the way. Great selection of photos and clean layout overall. It's one of the 'good guys'.

However, when I hover over the photos nothing happens as promised. The biggest weakness on your site, in my opinion, is the photo gallery and how it works. I clicked to get a bigger picture and it wasn't much bigger than thumbnail.

I think a clickable gallery broken into various aspects. 4 thumbnails below main larger photo would work well.

Take a look at this site (choose 'Photo Gallery')

http://www.nasa-istra.com/en/index.htm

By no means perfect but at least it's an attempt to provide some element of usability.

[Normandy Cow]

I like your site by the way.

Aw shucks! Praise indeed! Yippee - I'm a "good guy"!!!

Yes, as per your suggestion I will change amend it to allow people to click through to larger images of those on the home page.

But it's funny how different people have different opinions! I actually really really like my photo gallery! I modelled it on a full page advert that you see in many home magazines by a company called Jim lawrence lighting, which has a number of small images (a mixture of close-ups and more general images)separated by whitespace, similar to what I have ended up with. You say you clicked on an image and it wasn't much bigger than the thumbnail - this is true of some of them, but some of them are actually huge when you click on them (sunset over the garden chair for example).

I had a look at the gallery for nasa-istra, and it was OK, but I still prefer mine. Sorry. There wasn't actually anything wrong with it, and it would not in itself stop me from making a booking, I just prefer mine. Similarly, whilst I accept that my photogallery may not be to everyone's taste, I don't think it would put anyone off Le Gaillon would it? Well I hope not anyway! It just goes to show that we all have different tastes, (and isn't the world a more interesting place as a result?! )

Garri, I am interested to know - did you notice that whilst my photogallery has that first page with a load of thumbnails, it also has 4 other pages of full-sized photos that you can access - interior, exterior, views, garden - which can be accessed by clicking on the links at the top and bottom of the page. If you did not notice these links, can you suggest a way that I can make them more obvious?

[Ju]

Catherine

I think your photo gallery is better than the one Garri suggested. I don't quite understand why you would want to click on the thumbnails for more detail, you can see them perfectly clearly as they are, and there are plenty of big photos on the following pages.

Ju

P.S the OH wants to know if Victor Hugo really stayed at your place? Was that his visitors book entrance on the first page?